got x-rays today... the ribs are still a little messed up... i still remember that moment when I was flying through the air thinking it was going to be a softish landing in the snow, and then it wasn't. turns out they're not fractured, but bruised nicely. so, maybe i'll play hockey and then see those who froze their extremities off later...

So, that crew that made that sweet San Fran short video is working on a full length. You need to see the trailer. Go to Cliquenmove.com and choose channel 2. takes the little short below to the next level... no hands sitting on the bars fixed skid. deeluxe. i'm sure cement doesn't hurt nearly as much as the hard snow i landed on sunday... i better start working on my skidding. like dr. h on my driveway sunday...

despite Hal's attempt to colour the event with his disparaging pseudo-scientific study (we think mate is carcinogenic, but most of the participants in the study are smokers...), the turnout was rather something. Ten riders. Here are the hard facts for now... pictures and further anecdotal reporting should be along soon enough...

Saturday, January 26, 2008

here's the nordic cross trophy, created by one mr. jon b. points for last year's races were a total mystery, but someone made a decision and i ended up with the prize. i suggest a more calculated approach with the following system: last place gets 10 points, climbing by 10 points for each position up the list. in hara curry there were 12 racers so 120 points went to 1st place also, you have to finish a race to get points. based on the first three races of the young season here are the standings:

Friday, January 25, 2008

ok, here's a short video of the course. turns out it's nearly useless due to technical difficulties in the single track, but it's a nice opportunity to listen to a bit more Paraguayan folk music.

for your edification: my wife's father spent just over 10 years in Paraguay... a refugee from the war... this is where the Mennonites learned to drink mate. they were struggling to make it in a new, harsh land. the indigenous people, the Guarani, taught the newcomers to drink the nectar and it saved their lives.

yes, the race will be headquartered at my place, 129 Irving Place. If you are riding, it's all pretty lame until you can move toward the river at Kildonan Drive... then you have very lovely, suburban road. while some of us make the trek from the north on a fairly regular basis, public mockery will be held to a minimum if you simply feel the need to drive. due to time issues, even the dr. may drive this time.

the basement and bathroom will be available at all times. it has, in fact, been suggested that participants bring a bottle of interesting beer to share with others after the race... yes, sitting in the basement for such fellowship will be encouraged.

while the dr has implied such, i will now make it explicit: the race will include consumption of yerba mate at every lap. the president is potentially exempt due to the fragility of his intestinal tract. each racer will have their own temporary mate setup in the garage which will be refilled by the commissionaire.

if mate (mah-tay) is new to you, you need really only know that it is a green tea endowed with all of nature's riches: healthy stimulant. an oxymoron you say. start googling now.

oh, a lap has been carefully counted at 1.39km's. we'll decide on how many as a gathered collective.

with the doctor gone for the next day and a half, some of you may go into fgbc blog post withdrawal so here come a few posts regarding this next race.

I have secured a lovely yerba mate ensemble for the first rider to finish the race who DOES NOT already own such gear. It has been donated by my good friend Marvin, proprietor of Marvin's Foods... the finest place to buy mate in Winnipeg.

It includes 1kg of Selecta Yerba Mate, one horn guampa (the traditional drinking vessel from Paraguay), and one bombilla (the straw thingy). As a bonus, a brief seminar on properly setting up one's daily drink will be provided.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Nordic-X #4 is just around the corner. Well, actually it's on the other side of town for most of us. But either way, it's coming up soon. The Secretary and President have some special NK treats in store. It's really a biathlon of sorts. More Hara-Curry than Canuck Cross in the sense that it involves consumption. But with a twist. There, the consumption was in effect a barrier to riding. Just ask Tomek and Jonny B. But here it's all performance enhancement, Paraguayan style. (Discussion at the clubhouse last night also turned up some other intriguing consumptive combinations, with Hookah Cross and Scotch Cross being the most popular. Maybe next year.) Besides all that, the race venue is a hidden gem. Well worth the trip, this one.

Monday, January 21, 2008

By Louis Riel Statue, I mean the one behind the Leg, not the one behind CUSB. In other words, we return to the site of Unger's legendary crash into the limestone retaining wall. There shouldn't be any such masonry encounters this time around though. The course is different. Faster, longer, less tight and twisty. More climbing too, as each lap takes us from the river up to the road. And yes, it's a figure-eight.

Pre-race coffee at Osborne Village Starbucks. Meet at my place at 9pm to ride over together or meet there.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Tree dominated the field again in Hoogerheide and wins for the second week in a row. It's also his third World Cup win of the season. Very Impressive. All of a sudden the 23 year old is looking less and less like a potential future champion and more and more like the favourite for next weekend's World Championship. Wellens and Vervecken round out the podium. Page, who has been riding better as of late, was 8th, while Nys finished in 12th place. More from CN.

Over in the FGBC Pool, Andy's lead shrinks again, if only slightly. He concedes 45 points but still has a lead of over 300. El Presidente continues his impressive late-season surge. And that's without his top Frenchman, Francis Mourey, who said he was saving himself for next Sunday. He gets points from Gadret, Chainel, and Derepas for 150. All of a sudden it looks like the once-daunting 1000 point barrier is in the bag.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

if jonny v's argyle armada is a new and positive story for competitive cycling, then michael ball's rock racing team is surely the antithesis. about a month ago i came across the story of this dork stick while reading the bike snob nyc blog. there is some indication that this guy, as labeled by the nyc bike snob, is the vince mcmahon of the cycling world. evidence of his ideas and views on how he sees himself as a force to be reckoned with in the cycling world can be found here (read the "pro road cycling" entry) , here and here (follow this by reading bike snob's parody of the letter mr. ball would send to steve hed of hed cycling - funny stuff). scary thing is that the honourary captain might become a member of michael ball's rock n' rolling train of mayhem. just because you have more money than you know what to do with doesn't necessarily give you the insight and ability to put together a professional cycling team - if it did, why would you choose cadillac escalades as the team's support vehicle?

Friday, January 18, 2008

Same forest loop as last year's 24 Hour race. It's all marked with orange arrows painted on the snow. Since there's not much traffic out there in this weather, they'll probably stick around for a while. And wind chill aside, the trails are pretty much perfect right now. Weekend race, anyone?

Thursday, January 17, 2008

It seems we have another Scheissbike scenario on our hands. In this case, the event was billed as "Winter Fun Day." A day to face winter head-on and embrace it with outdoor games and such. Or so the feel-good saccharine drenched rhetoric goes. I was supposed to organize a short bike race. But then the fear-mongers we know as the media got wind of the windchill forecast for tomorrow. -43 or something like that. All of a sudden, everyone's scared for their personal safety. At least that's how they're putting it. So Winter Fun day is officially postponed until next week, when it promises to be warmer. But I'm out of town next Friday. And besides, I think this posture of defeatist cowardliness exposes the whole premise of Winter Fun Day as a sham in the first place. Kind of like that great "enlightened" commitment to pluralism, which is receptive of otherness so long as it's not threatening in any way. So the race is on, even if it's just me. In and among the trees it'll feel much closer to the balmy -24 high they're calling for. But even if it doesn't: Friday at 1pm in the Assiniboine Forest. If you're looking for an excuse to ride, feel free to show up.

There's an interesting article on Jonathan Vaughters' much-discussed Team Slipstream experiment--over at ESPN of all places. It will be interesting to see how they do throughout the year. There's been some talk of them as a potential wild card team for the Tour this year, though that's probably a long-shot given the ASO's preference for no-name french teams. But we'll get an early look at them next month, as they're one of an impressive lineup of teams doing the Tour of California. It's hard not to root for JV and the guys. He looks like a professor and apparently has some good taste in wine. I wonder if he wears pleated pants, though.

Among other things, there's also this quote about the honorary captain from his fromer trainer:

"I will not comment on his guilt or innocence," Lim says later. "I'm not so naïve as to think that no one takes drugs, but I'm also not so cynical as to think everyone's taking drugs. If he did dope, he's one helluva conflicted individual, because if there's anyone who understands the distinction between right and wrong, it's Floyd."

The jury's probably still out on this one. For some the two stages seemed to blend together rather nicely. For others, well, there were problems. One thing is clear, though: Vic and Juan Eppstein can eat them some curry. The two of them put on a dominant display of consumptive mastery last night in the first stage of the race. Three plates each for those two bad boys. Jonny B gave it a good effort, but fell short in the end and never seemed to recover. In fact, he had a hard time keeping up with the neutral lap and then just disappeared. Swallowed up into the windy vortex of cold darkness that was this particular night. Or perhaps he was a casualty of his own exploding stomach. Either way, he wasn't seen again for the rest of the evening. Let's hope he made it home safely. Jonny, are you out there? Tomek also made a late, and rather surprising, attempt at plate #3, but it was clearly an unwise decision on his part. It would effectively end his race as well.

Those of you who witnessed last year's inaugural version of the race will recall not only that nobody managed to finish 3 plates. You will also recall that Haiku Dave, who came closest to establishing that benchmark, was so incapacitated by his attempt that he was unable to ride. By the end of lap one, he was left a bloated and sweaty shell of the man who looked so strong just an hour earlier. Juan and Vic, however, seemed to have no problems on the bike. Not only did they each complete their 2 laps, but in order to stay warm they kept riding while waiting for the rest of us to finish. It was impressive, to say the least.

Nice turnout for this one. 12 racers, with Rachel and James joining in for stage one.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Lars Boom--the Tree--rode away from the field at the very start of the race today and never looked back. He wins his 2nd World Cup race of the season and is looking more and more like a legitimate threat for the World Championship in two weeks. Wellens and Mourey round out the podium. Nys finishes--gasp--8th. He's washed up. Full results, report, and photos from CN.

For the first time in five races, Andy didn't win. I did. But he only concedes 30 points, so it's still a sizeable lead for the professor. The big news of the day in the FGBC Pool is David S. Apparently inspired by the opportunity to race in front of the home crowd, his mostly French team netted him 180 points. Mind you, it was on the strength of just two guys--Mourey and Gadret--the only 2 riders to earn him points all season. Still, that's almost as much as he's earned in his last 9 races combined. It's got to feel good to be El Presidente today. If only they raced in France every weekend. With 780 points, he now has an outside shot at cracking 1000 by the end of the season. The only downside to all this is that it all but ends the race to avoid last place. It's looking like Laura's got her name written all over the lantern rouge.

They race again next Sunday. It's the last tune-up before the World Championships.Top 20:

Friday, January 11, 2008

Who's going to volunteer to look into it? The president can talk to Laurence. That's what he does best. But we'll need someone to explore the technological side of the equation. Here's one option [thanks Dave]. The article mentioned below speaks of another more hi-tech version. If Saturday nights at the F&H are karaoke night, I don't see why Tuesday's couldn't be reserved for 20 second indoor sprints. If nothing else, it should work to keep the Earle's crowd away.

More info here, from the Star-Tribune. Nice media coverage of the local cycling scene down there, by the way. What do we get? Perpetual talk about paths for commuting, but not much more.

Not into riding on trainers in bars? Those crazy kids in Minneapolis have stumbled on another great winter cycling idea: riding the walkways. We could start at the Bay, ride to City Place, or whatever it's now called, and back. Then repeat for an hour or so. Thrown in some stairs at Portage Place, maybe a barrier or two, and we've got ourselves a Nordic Cross event. We'd have to prop the doors open and pay off some security guards, no doubt. Anyone got well-oiled connections with downtown property management folks?

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Or maybe it's early-onset nausea that I'm feeling. Either way, the editor has spoken. And it sounds like he's about to serve up the hottest racing experience of the young year.

Note that this is a Monday. A slight departure from the consistent and rock solid timing of races you've come to expect from Nordic Cross. The editor offers the following explanation for this mysterious deviation. I quote:

the date was set to reflect the wishes of last years near-champion Dave Larson. i hope many folks can come just to witness that particular part of the spectacle. --the editor

You won't want to miss this.

It's been a busy day for the editor. He's also requested that I post this:

The discerning reader will recognize that this little gem has graced the FGBC blog before. It's one of a series of Errol Morris ads for Miller. They're all worth viewing. In fact, they just might make a perfect advertising complement to those Flight of the Conchords excerpts posted earlier.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Bike race with hockeyCanuck Cross is a keeperFun with sticks and balls

Trails did not hold upPerilous among the treesLa Nina? What gives?

Nordic-X #2 is done. Finally. But it was well worth the wait in the end. Nicely done, Alberto. Let's remember this one. Too bad it was a rather disappointing turnout. Just Hal, Jonny G, Vic, James and myself racing. Jonny B was officiating and Dave D was official race photographer. Scott, Deanna and the dogs there providing good cheer as well. As for the other 27 of you proud Nordic Cross jersey owners, you should have been there. Perhaps it was too warm for some. What would Chopper say?

Saturday, January 05, 2008

hope to have a poster up later. cancuck cross will go tomorrow (sunday, january 6th) @ 8:00. the most likely location will be omand's creek park. you need a hockey stick and three tennis balls (if any one has a vast collection of tennis balls please bring extras). it would be a good idea to fashion a sling so you can carry your stick with you as you race - a condition of the race.

Friday, January 04, 2008

We're dealing with an acute case of textual indeterminacy. The Nordic-Cross calendar, it would seem, is beset with more floating signifiers and other locutionary ambiguities than your average run of the mill text. This is not a problem, as such. It just calls for a different kind of reading.

So, when it says Hurry for Curry is on Jan. 5. By that, you should read Canuck Cross will take place on Sunday, Jan. 6. Got it?

As for where and when. That is not yet clear. But Bert the baker will provide us with some further details shortly. I do believe you need a hockey stick. And some balls. Maybe three of them.

The calendar says curry-cross is Jan. 5. That is tomorrow. I haven't heard from the editor in a while. Do we have a time and place? I'm getting hungry.

Meanwhile, the 2nd race in the Snow Crit series will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 8. Plan on a 9:30 start. We've done a little scouting for new courses on some recent rides. More details to come shortly.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Not only does he go and name a race after himself. He proceeds to win it year after year. And this year was no different. So the headline reads: Sven Nys wins the GP Sven Nys. It's only fitting, really. I wonder if he helps set up the course. Red-hot Zdenek Stybar was second. And Kevin Pauwels surprised to grab the final spot on the podium. More from CN.

In the FGBC CX Pool, Andy wins once again, stretching his lead to just over 400 points. If the pattern holds up, that will shrink over the next three races. But is he in danger of losing his lead altogether? I think not. But the professor's playing it cautious. We shall see. Full breakdown here.